Mobile assisted language learning (MALL).
Mobile assisted language learning (MALL) ''' '''One way you can enhance your language learning is that you make use of mobile devices. These devices include cell phones, mp3 & mp4 players, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), tablet PCs and so forth.' The approach is accordingly called as mobile assisted language learning (MALL) which is a subset of both CALL and m-learning (mobile learning). '[http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-MALL?action=edit&section=1 ' ']' ' What are the benefits of MALL? '''[http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-MALL?action=edit&section=2 ']' ' '''In fact, MALL can be seen as a key to major challenges of language acquisition including comprehensible input or i+1(Krashen), the interaction hypothesis (Long), corrective/facilitative feedback (Gass, Long, Inagaki, Ortega) and learner autonomy (Benson). Furthermore, it facilitates authenticity, promotes learner-centered activities and increases motivation. Motivation is boosted when flow is combined with fun. In addition, MALL not only helps with language acquisition but also with its retention and utilization. Finally, it is best suited to busy students and professionals who do not have as much time to attend conventional classes or even more modern online courses. ' What are the drawbacks of MALL?' '[http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-MALL?action=edit&section=4 ']' ' 'Mobile devices usually have the following flaws: '[http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-MALL?action=edit&section=5 ']' ' ' · 'Low audiovisual quality ' ' ''' · 'Small screen size ' ' · ''''Virtual keyboard '[http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-MALL?action=edit&section=8 ']' ' ' · 'One-finger data entry ' ' · 'Limited power '[http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-MALL?action=edit&section=10 ']' ' '''However, their portability is of greater interest in most cases.' ' '''Overall, MALL provides three elements which are crucial to language acquisition: input, interaction and feedback. It helps with content delivery and supports collaboration within and beyond the classroom; using mobile devices, one can practice language anywhere and anytime. ' ' ' Web 1.0 2.0 3.0 In fact, these terms are the various stages of the Internet development mostly with regard to the ways we use the web. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-web_1.0_2.0_3.0?action=edit&section=1 Main features of web 1.0: http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-web_1.0_2.0_3.0?action=edit&section=2 · A top-down approach to the use of the web, so there were only a few creators and most users were only consumers. As a result, user-generated content was not available. (Read Only Web) · Worries about privacy · Closed to editing; information updated only by the webmaster, so it was static. The term web 2.0 was first used in 1999. Main features of web 2.0: · A bottom-up approach to the use of the web, so there were many users as creators and contributors. As a result, user-generated content became available. (The Read Write Web) · Basic trust · Based on interaction and collaboration, so it was dynamic Examples of web 2.0: Social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing, hosted services, web applications, mashups, folksonomies (free classification of information) Main features of web 3.0: · Semantic web · Personalization · Convergence of the virtual and physical world · The mass distribution of NTSC-or- better quality video to TVs, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices, a time when “ the Internet swallows the television.” http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-web_1.0_2.0_3.0?action=edit&section=17 Briefly, Reed Hastings characterizes web 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0 as following: http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-web_1.0_2.0_3.0?action=edit&section=18 “web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video web, and that will feel like web 3.0.” Technological Literacy and Ethical Issues It stands to reason that information and technology are closely bound together in contemporary times. As a result, you may hear ‘information and technology literacy’ together as a single term. The question is that how this kind of literacy is defined and what are its main components. According to the Colorado Department of Education, technology literacy is the responsible use of appropriate technology to: Ø Communicate Ø Solve problems Ø Access, manage, integrate, evaluate, design and create information to improve learning in all subject areas Ø Acquire lifelong knowledge and skills in the 21st century To explain more, technological literacy involves communicating with others using various media. This communication is mainly performed for personal purposes such as pursuing one’s interests or completing school work. Then, 1) a technologically literate person knows how to formulate a question, gather information, classify it and integrate this new information with that of already known. He can also evaluate his resources. This evaluation includes every consideration of accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness and bias of resources. In brief, a technologically literate person has developed some evaluative criteria to check the credentials of his resources. Lastly, 2) he is able to draw conclusions on whatever information he has obtained. It is evident that this kind of literacy has great implications in research and public presentations. Just like information, ethical issues are also woven into technological literacy. A technologically literate person is entirely aware of ethical and safety issues with regard to information and technology usage. These issues include citing sources, plagiarism دزدى ادبى, copyright, intellectual property and privacy matters. In other words, a technologically literate person is a digital citizen-a person who uses the Internet regularly and effectively-who is aware of consequences of any technology misuse including hacking, spamming, consumer fraud, virus setting and intrusion نفوذ. In summary, information and technology literacy means learning how to learn. It means using technology to enhance learning and productivity in all subject contents. It helps individuals to use technology for their learning needs independently and for collaboration with others while knowing about its potential dangers and limitations. A technologically literate person deeply perceives the significant role of technology in the workplace and society. He further knows how to exhibit legal and ethical behavior. ' ' Social Bookmarking Tools Unquestionably, today Internet has become a great tool helping us to find any kind of information we might need. This is achieved through the use of search engines or even better by using RSS feeds. However, there are chances of getting irrelevant information every once in a while, so what is the solution? The answer is nothing but ‘social bookmarking services’ where people can save links, annotate them with keywords or “tags”, and then share them with others. Here you can see while RSS lets us read and connect with what others write, social bookmarking services let us read and connect with what others read. One of the most famous social bookmarking sites is known to be ‘Delicious.com’. Let us think you have found a brilliant site about CALL. Now you want to make it easier for others to find out that precious information on the web. Furthermore, you want to find out what other sites might offer that kind of stuff or who else has the same need or interest as yours. You just need to follow a few easy steps: Go to a bookmarking site like Delicious and bookmark the site of your choice over there. Just after that, you will be linked to everyone else who has also bookmarked the site. What is more, people usually use some tags or keywords as they save any link on a site like Delicious. Thereby, you get to click on any of those tags to be connected to the same kind of resources. During this process of give and take with the online community, you take part in data organization subconsciously. This is of course another significant contribution of the Read/Write Web. The process of collective classification on the web is called ‘folksonomy’ instead of the traditional term ‘taxonomy’. The difference lies in the nature of this folksonomy by amateurs (rather than trained librarians) where lots of tags might be integrated to any given link. Undoubtedly, the more people take part, the more creditable the folksonomies. Quite often researchers are asked to reveal the sources they have used. Using these folksonomies, they are even asked more to retrieve their sources. Another useful bookmarking site is ‘Diigo’. The only thing you need to do is join the site by making an account there. Next, if you add ‘Diigolet’ button (by dragging) to your browser toolbar, anytime you find a page interesting you could easily save it by just clicking on the Diigolet button. What is the difference between Diigo and Delicious? Diigo is about saving content while Delicious is all about sharing links in as easy a way as possible. Although Delicious does not have all of the flexibility and power of Diigo in terms of search, annotation, and archiving, simplicity is the most outstanding asset of the Delicious. One more thing is that on Delicious the tag is everything because finding and connecting to relevant information is done just through the tag. Any annotation you add to your will be just for your own use. Remember if you are going to employ Diigo or Delicious for your collaborative class subjects, you have to make the tags as unique as possible. From what has been said, social bookmarking tools are another collaborative help provided by the Read/Write Web and has the potential to make our teaching/learning experiences totally different. Wikis The word “wiki” is in fact the contracted form of the Hawaiian word “wiki-wiki” which means quick. Here in a broader sense quick means easy because a wiki is a web site where you can easily settle your stuff and also a place where anyone can easily edit anything anytime they want. Undoubtedly, Wikipedia is now the most famous wiki all over the world. It has materialized the dream of accessibility to the sum of all human knowledge. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=1 Why must we teach Wikipedia to our students? http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=2 1) They need it for their research. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=3 2) Wikipedia is becoming a trusted and cited source by many major news outlets and scholars. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=4 3) There is much to learn in the process of using Wikipedia that can help our students become better learners-namely, collaboration and negotiation skills. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=5 What are the benefits of wikis for different professionals? http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=6 1) Project teams: use wikis to keep track of their work. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=7 2) People in business: employees can share information and collaborate in an easy way. They can also make use of these tools to manage documents and information. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=8 3) Teachers: build collaborative resource sites for their classes. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=9 How do wikis work? http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=10 Every wiki page has a link, usually at the top, called as “edit page” which enables you to exert edits. In addition, there is always another link on a wiki page called as “history”. By clicking that you can see when what changes have made by whom. Then, the best part is if someone come and muck things up, you can easily revert to the previous version using the history link. This is of great importance in case you face vandalism. Another link of wiki pages which is not usually familiar to the most users is the “discussion” link. Whereas wikis are not as common places for conversations as blogs, discussion links on wikis provide a chance for editors or contributors to discuss what should or shouldn’t appear out there in the entry. It is a place for reflection; a place to keep the entire process transparent. Some challenges in using wikis:http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=13 1) Wikis foster the idea of open source to the mainstream; however, they contradict the traditional idea of copy right and intellectual property rights. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=14 2) In case of Wikipedia, there is no question that each entry is kind of collaborative research paper which suggests a neutral viewpoint rather than defending a specific idea or thesis. Therefore, this poses another challenge to students about how they can evaluate those entries. As a result, most educators advise their students to use Wikipedia as a starting point for their work, but not as the sole one. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=15 3) Security on wikis is another challenge put forward. However, in educational environments you can reduce the risk level by limiting access to the site. In other words, you can employ a password and login system to restrict collaboration to the boundaries of your class students only. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=16 Advantages of wikis as educational tools:http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=17 When you use a wiki as an educational tool in your teaching practice, you will see the more autonomy you give your students, the better their quality of contents on wikis. To put it another way, it appears as a very democratic practice of publishing content and negotiating correctness, meaning and relevance of the materials. In fact, wikis are great tools to help students teach each other. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=18 In brief, wikis promote collaboration and a sense of belonging to a community who creates knowledge collectively. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=19 Different modes of using wikis with students:http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=20 1) Use wikis to build a kind of personalized co-constructed curriculum where every student and teacher who is engaged with that course can actually contribute. It can become a resource and an articulation for best practices as well. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=21 2) Get your students to publish or edit entries to books that have already started elsewhere. Then, encourage them to keep track of their ideas in order to see how they are edited by others. This way they get to learn about the concept of open-source software. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=22 Examples of wiki tools for schools:http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=23 1) Wikispaces.com http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=24 2) Wetpaint.com http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=25 3) PBwiki.com http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=26 4) Sites.Google.com http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=27 5) Webnote which is like an online Post-it note repository and the most prominent feature of it is to enable you to save snippets of web pages out there. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-wikis?action=edit&section=28 6) Docs.Google.com ReadWiteWeb When the internet was first introduced, it was just a network of computers that researchers and government officials used to share text and data, but Berners-Lee wanted to make it a collaborative medium where people meet, read and write-a virtual place where people from around the globe can share personal information, opinion and experiences. However, creating content on the Web (writing) was technologically difficult for the most users at the time. Today it is not difficult any longer. Blogs or Weblogs are the first widely adopted easy publishing tool of the Read/Write Web. Multimedia publishing by the masses is another tool of the Read/Write Web. (e.g. video publishing sites like YouTube.com) The Read/Write Web has now many applications in various fields of our lives such as education, business, politics, journalism and media. In the journalism and media field, for example, the Read/Write Web is much more immediate and complex than the traditional way. It also creates millions of amateur reporters and editors. In business, Weblogs, Wikis and Twitter are used for a great deal of purposes such as public relations, customer service and internal communications which provide transparency. Here, it is beneficial to mention the term “society of authorship” suggested by Rushkoff which relates closely to the concept of the Read/Write Web. “ Society of authorship” implies a place where every teacher and every student-every person with access-will have the ability to contribute ideas and experiences to the larger body of knowledge that is the Internet. Unfortunately, adaptation to the Read/Write Web in education is slow. The majority of educators still have little or no context for the shift. Above that, they have not yet used these tools in their own learning. The Web has the potential to change what we assume about teaching and learning. It also affects the curriculum content and the concept of literacy. Here the emphasis of this new Web is upon learning first, teaching second Using this new Read/Write Web, a teacher is equipped with the following tools: 1) Publishing tools 2) Information managing tools 3) Tools that share content in new collaborative ways This new toolbox contains the following items: 1) Weblogs 2) Wikis 3) Really Simple Syndications (RSS) 4) Aggregators 5) Social Bookmarking 6) Online Photo Galleries 7) Audio/Video Casting 8) Twitter 9) Social Networking Sites FAZ-Podcasting, Video & Screen Casting & Live Streaming Today we are faced with a great deal of multimedia publishing on the Web. This has been accomplished through broadband connectivity and cheap memory on computers. What is more, the quality of media file playing is much better now because in the past computers played the file as it streamed, now they download and save the file, then play it. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=1 Podcasting: Podcasting was born in 2004. It is the creation and distribution of amateur radio. Simply, it is producing Internet radio. Podcasts can be taken around and listened to whenever a person desires. The only thing that is required is an MP3 player. But what are podcasts about? In fact, their content varies a lot from everyday topics that interest most people to more serious subjects such as latest news, interviews or keynotes and presentations. How is podcasting used in education? There are several ways to use podcasting in education. One way is that you produce an edu-radio. The other is that you record daily lessons for your students. Then, they listen to them at home or download them to their MP3 players. As a teacher, you can regularly record important parts of class lessons and archive them on the class Weblog. Such podcasts could be best used by absent students or those wanting a refresher. Finally, you can get your students to do their homework in the form of podcasts e.g. interviews about historical events for history lesson, narratives about experiments in science or recital records for music. In addition, podcasts can be used among teaching and managing community of a school. School assemblies can be podcast. New teachers’ orientations could be done by podcasting. Principal messages could also be podcast for teachers or students. Podcasting tools: http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=7 Audacity: it is a free, open-source program which can be used for editing and mixing your audio files.http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=8 Skype.com: it can be used to record conference calls of up to 5 people http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=9 WordPress: it is the most popular blog software through which you can publish your audio files onto a Weblog http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=10 Podomatic: it is a website where you can directly record onto the server; however editing is not possible; you can just redo it. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=11 Video publishing: http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=12 It is the creation and distribution of amateur digital video. Videocasting usage: http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=14 It provides all uses of podcasting plus visual gravitation, so videocasting is usually more appealing to the older students. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=15 Videocasting tools: http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=16 MovieMaker: to edit and import video and audio (for windows) http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=17 iMovie: to edit and import video and audio (for Mac) http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=18 Popular video uploading sites: YouTube.com (You can record video right from your computer onto their server) http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=20 Google Video http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=21 TeacherTube.com http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=22 iTunes: here you can turn your video into an MP4 file (and synch up with your iPod) http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=23 ScreenCasting: http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=24 Briefly, screencasting means capturing what happens on a computer screen with an audio narration to go with it. It is like podcasting , but here you combine audio with video. http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=25 How is screencasting used in education? http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=26 As a teacher: Ø You could create screen-casts to teach complex skills on the computer http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=28 Ø You could create training videos for peers Ø You could narrate powerpoint tours for parents http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=30 Ø You could create exemplary student work http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=31 Ø You can get your students to annotate their work in voice as they show it on screen http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=32 Ø You can get your students to create their own Internet tours http://calljdku912.wikia.com/wiki/FAZ-podcasting?action=edit&section=33 Ø You can get your students to read their stories or poetry with accompanying visuals Screencasting tools: One of the best screencasting tools is Jingproject.com. It is easy to use and can be used as a screen-capture tool as well. When you are finished with your screencast creation, you can easily embed your screencast on your blog or wiki using the code provided by the tool Live Streaming=Web TV=Creating Live Television: In brief, it means broadcasting TV shows live and online. It is something like that anyone can own a television station! How is live-streaming used in education? Ø School plays and musicals could be broadcast to relatives Ø Student science presentations could be broadcast to parents Ø Student-run daily news could be broadcast Ø Teachers professional development could be broadcast Ø Conference workshops and presentations could be broadcast Live-streaming tools: One of the best online video streaming sites is: Ustream.tv What facilities does the Ustream provide? Ø It makes streaming easy Ø It offers a chat room for viewers to interact with Ø It archives your shows Ø However the best feature of Ustream for educators is that it allows them to password protect their show, so only those who have the login can view the live stream. Aggregators ASS.04 911221 Aggregator refers to a website or computer software that aggregates (collects) a specific type of information from multiple sources. For further information on various types see this link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregator How do aggregators gather information from the sources? It is done through web syndication. Web syndication is a kind of syndication that makes web site content available to many other sites. Generally, web syndication is referred to producing web feeds from a site to provide other people with a summary or updated content. (e.g. the latest news or forum posts). What is a web feed? It is a data format used to provide frequently updated content. How does it relate to aggregation? Making a list of web feeds accessible in one place is known as aggregation which is accomplished by an aggregator. A web feed is also sometimes referred to as a syndicated feed. A typical scenario of web feed use is: a content provider publishes a feed link on their site which end users can register with an aggregator program (also called a feed reader or a news reader) running on their own machines. Next, the aggregator asks all the servers in its feed list if there is any new content; if so, it either makes a note of the new content or downloads it. It is possible to regulate aggregators to check new content in regular periods. Advantages of web feeds compared to updating via email: ü Users do not disclose their email address when subscribing to a feed and so are not increasing their exposure to threats associated with email: spam, viruses, phishing, and identity theft. ü Users do not have to send an unsubscribe request to stop receiving news. They simply remove the feed from their aggregator. ü The feed items are automatically sorted unlike an email box where messages must be sorted by user-defined rules What are planet sites? Web applications can be used to aggregate several blogs into one. One such variety is called planet sites which are used by online communities to aggregate community blogs in a centralized location To conclude, aggregators help us to combine many websites into one page, thereby they reduce the time and effort needed to surf several web pages. They are able to pull information from feeds whenever it is required. Social Bookmarking in Education Evidently, social book marking helps teachers & students to find, retrieve & share reference lists, bibliographies, papers and other information sources. Using keywords to tag information sources, makes the process of storing & finding much easier. Some of the good social book marking sites are as follows: Digg , Stumble Upon, Delicious and Diigo. Among them Diigo which stands for Digest of Internet Information , Groups & other stuff has special features suitable for educational purposes: With Diigo you can highlight text & pictures in various colors. You can also add sticky notes to a bookmarked page. This way you can annotate that piece of information with your own thoughts & viewpoints. No wonder all these could be saved & retrieved by you & anyone you share the page with. This is of great significance when working on a long article. By annotation you draw attention of your audience (either your students or your colleagues) to the parts you favor. Another way that Diigo helps you with education is that it enables you to take screenshots of bookmarked pages, so if the page changes or is removed, you still have access to the original page. There are also some additional features created only for teachers. To use them, you just need to apply for a free educator account. Then, you can create student accounts with or without their email addresses. Next is the safety issue. When you use Diigo Educator accounts, it automatically confines communications to the teacher & classmates. Furthermore, all students in the same class considered as a group & share their bookmarks by default. May be the best usage of social book marking is in project tasks where you share annotated bookmarks with students to work on. Even better is that you can save and archive all those useful bookmarks for your next year‘s class. Finally, as a teacher you can manage a list of homework help sites and/or safe research sites for your students to use regularly. Importing & Exporting Information on the Web Importing data is the process of retrieving data from sources external to Microsoft SQL Server and inserting it into SQL Server tables. Exporting data is the process of extracting data from an instance of SQL Server into some user-specified format (e.g. copying the contents of a SQL Server table to a Microsoft Access database.) Importing data is usually the first step after setting up a database. It can be a one-time occurrence or an ongoing task. However, exporting data is a less frequent occurrence. SQL Server provides tools for importing and exporting data to and from data sources, including text files, ODBC data sources (such as Oracle databases), OLE DB data sources (such as other instances of SQL Server), ASCII text files, and Excel spreadsheets . Moreover, SQL Server replication allows data to be distributed across an enterprise, copying data between locations and synchronizing changes automatically between different copies of data. Spyware) '''Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. spyware exists as independent executable programs, they have the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan files on the hard drive, snoop other applications, such as chat programs or word processors, install other spyware programs, read cookies, change the default home page on the Web browser, consistently relaying this information back to the spyware author who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party. '''Phishing) '''The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information. '''Adware)' '''Adware is considered a legitimate alternative offered to consumers who do not wish to pay for software. Programs, games or utilities can be designed and distributed as freeware. Sometimes freeware blocks features and functions of the software until you pay to register it. Today we have a growing number of software developers who offer their goods as "sponsored" freeware until you pay to register. Generally most or all features of the freeware are enabled but you will be viewing sponsored advertisements while the software is being used. '''Virus)' '''''A computer virus attaches itself to a program or file enabling it to spread from one computer to another, leaving infections as it travels. Like a human virus, a computer virus can range in severity: some may cause only mildly annoying effects while others can damage your hardware, software or files. Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may exist on your computer but it actually cannot infect your computer unless you run or open the malicious program. It is important to note that a virus cannot be spread without a human action, (such as running an infected program) to keep it going. Because a virus is spread by human action people will unknowingly continue the spread of a computer virus by sharing infecting files or sending emails with viruses as attachments in the email. '' '''security software disabler Trojan) A type of Trojan horse designed stop or kill security programs such as an antivirus program or firewall without the user knowing. This Trojan type is normally combined with another type of Trojan as a payload. Malware) Short for malicious software, malware refers to software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus or a Trojan horse. Nag ware) Software or programming that routinely issues a pop-up window or other form of visual interface asking the user to register a product, purchase an application or take another form of action. Nag ware is typically used in reference to shareware, which typically offers a free-trial period of use for the application and then requests that the user purchase the rights to use the software indefinitely. The term gets its name from the idea that the reminders "nag" the user into taking some particular action as they will keep appearing until the desired action has been performed. The reminder window that appears on the monitor often is referred to as the nag screen. Nag screens typically pop up when the application is activated and also when the user quits the program but can appear at any time during the application's use. .' ' ' ' ' ' Weblogs ASS.0.2 911214 ''' In the most general sense, a Weblog or a blog (a portmanteau or blend of two words) is an easily created, easily updated Web site that allows an author (or authors in case of “multi-author blogs” or “MABs”) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection. To be more specific, it is a discussion or informational site consisting of discrete entries (posts) typically displayed in reverse chronological order (The most recent post appears first). But what really distinguishes a blog from a Web site is its content which is dynamic and interactive. They are comprised of reflections and conversations that in many cases are updated everyday (if not three or four times a day). In fact, they allow visitors to leave comments and even message each other. They engage readers with ideas, questions and links. Being able to connect ideas and resources via linking is one of blogging’s most important strengths. A good blogger provides every post with a link so that others who read his/her ideas can write about them on their own blogs and send their own readers to that blogger’s way. This is one of the key ways that community among bloggers is built. Therefore, blogging can also be seen as a form of social networking. In large measures, it is blogs that have opened up the Read/Write frontier for content creation to the Web. '''Blog Types: ''' ' There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way that content is delivered or written. '''Personal Blogs': A personal blog is an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual and is the traditional, most common blog. One type of personal blog, referred to as a microblog, is extremely detailed and seeks to capture a moment in time. Microblogging: It is the practice of posting small pieces of digital content which could be text, pictures, links, short videos, or other media on the Internet. Corporate and Organizational Blogs: Blogs used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs. By Genre: Some blogs focus on a particular subject such as politics blogs, health blogs, travel blogs (also known as travelogs), education blogs (also known as edublogs), legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) and the like. Two common types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blog featuring discussion about home and family is usually called a mom blog. Lastly, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a splog! By Media: A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog and the one comprising photo is called a photoblog. By Device: Blogs can also be defined by the type of device used to compose them. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog. Reverse Blog: A reverse blog is composed by its users rather than a single blogger. This system has the characteristics of a blog, and the writing of several authors. These can be written by several contributing authors on a topic, or opened up for anyone to write. There is typically some limit to the number of entries to keep it from operating like a Web Forum. Weblog benefits in education: ''' ' Weblogs have huge potentials in an educational setting because: 1) Writing to the Web is easy 2) There is a wide audience Blogs provide following educational advantages. They can: · Promote critical and analytical thinking · Be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking · Promote analogical thinking · Be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information · Combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction What is more, blogs can be used as class portals, online filing cabinets for student work, e-portfolios, collaborative space, knowledge management, and even school Web sites. Using the blogs, students build relationships with peers, teachers, mentors and professionals within the Weblog environment. '''Class Portal '' ' Class portal is an entry which is built to communicate information about the class and to archive course materials. From a teaching standpoint, having a place to publish the course curriculum, syllabus, class rules, homework assignments, rubrics, handouts and presentations makes a Weblog a powerful course management tool. Class portals save time and money. They also notify parents when new information about the class is posted. In addition, they provide easy communication with peers who might be teaching the same course. Finally, they provide transparency for school superiors who want to check the class activities and progression. Online Filing Cabinet ''' ' A digital filing cabinet is a good chance where the class can go paperless as students simply post their work online for peer and teacher response. At the same time, they archive their work and create a space for an online portfolio of work. This has a number of advantages: First, students never misplace their work and neither does the teacher. Nothing is lost and teachers can enforce strict deadlines. Second, it provides opportunities for student reflection to look back and see their accomplishment. Remember that Weblogs are searchable. Finally, as Weblogs are transparent, it’s easy for parents, counselors, mentors and peers to follow a student work on the blog. Now if students had Weblog setup from the time they started school to the time they graduated, they could have a history of their work for reflection or future study. '''E-Portfolio '' ' On blog portfolio students collect the work they might want to consider highlighting in their portfolio and then they select those that represent their best work. They then reflect on the choices they made. Finally, they publish the result for others to see. Collaborative Space ''' ' One of the biggest potentials of weblogs is the ability to create spaces where students can learn from each other or from authors or scientists who may be far away physically. '''Knowledge Management and Articulation '' ' Indeed, blogs are a great way of communicating internally as well. School committees can use a blog to archive meetings, continue dialogues between get-togethers, share links to relevant information, and store documents and presentations for further use. In addition, districts can use Weblogs as articulation tools to highlight and share best practices, lesson plans, and “learning objects” such as worksheets or projects. School Web Site ''' ''' Finally, Weblogs can be used as building blocks for a school Web site. They can be used to update school Web sites. If a school Web site is composed of several different blogs, it will move from a static, wait-for-the-webmaster-to-update-it type site to a dynamic, everyday-there’s-something-new type site.